Stumbling on a piece of glowing wood out in the forest sounds like a magical experience, but it is possible. Under specific conditions, certain species of mushroom will fluoresce as they consume wood, although it’s rare and hard to recreate.
Now, scientists at Empa have managed to induce those conditions to make glow in the dark wood. The most effective combo turned out to be ringless honey fungus (Desarmillaria tabescens) and balsa wood, which was able to fluoresce for up to 10 days in wavelengths of 560 nanometers – a classic green glow.
Three months of production for 10 days of glow?
This seems like a pipe dream considering that part of the wood is consumed during use, meaning that the entire lighting unit needs to be replaced when it dies.
Let’s say they get the ratio up to 1:1 (a month of glow for a month of production - probably a stretch but let’s be generous). An LED could provide more light for years of operation, and I seriously doubt that the transportation of bricks of waterlogged wood every month would be a good energy tradeoff for the electricity needed to run the LED.